Here’s How Marketing Automation Reshapes Your Digital Success

Feeling buried in marketing tasks?
Tired of chasing uninterested leads one by one?
Thinking of how to connect with your audience on a personal level?
But most importantly, do you need time to breathe?
Then give marketing automation a try!

What is Marketing Automation?

I see it, I like it, I want it, I got it! 

That’s what marketing automation makes your leads think of your business. That and many more reasons explain why 64% of marketers already use marketing automation, and 38% of those who don’t will start using it in 2024. 

Business people use it to accomplish different goals. A Statista report noted that 63% of marketing leaders use automation for email marketing, 50% for social media management, 40% for paid ads, 26% for campaign tracking, and 24% for account-based marketing in 2023. With automated marketing, you tick the boxes in:

• Gathering and turning data into knowledge
• Addressing all essential touchpoints on the customer journey
• Reaching out to every lead at the right time with the right message
• Bringing sales and marketing closer to each other
• Ensuring a mutual understanding of a good lead
• Simplifying business operations by automating repetitive tasks
• Increased traceability of sales and marketing initiatives
• Measuring and comparing campaign results
• Optimizing return on investment (ROI)

‘Marketing automation is the turbocharger for lead generation.’

Peter Adolfsen, CEO & Founder of LeadFighter

Common Misconceptions About Marketing Automation

Understanding what marketing automation is not helps with clearly defining its concept. Let’s break some myths, shall we?

Marketing automation is best for large enterprises. Businesses of all sizes can leverage its power to streamline operations and boost efficiency. Remember, automation doesn’t have to break the bank.

Marketing automation is meant to autopilot only email marketing channels. Email marketing automation is about sending an accurate message at the right time. It ranges from general welcoming emails to tailored messages and newsletters. Although email automation is one of the most significant aspects of automated marketing, it remains one of many. 

Automated processes replace human interaction. Well, they don’t! Automation reduces time and costs but doesn’t replace human expertise. Humans set up automated email campaigns behind the screen. So, experts consider automation tools their secret spies. They help collect data and find the perfect time to hit send or call a lead to set up a meeting. 

Marketing automation guarantees instant results. But let’s be honest; nothing in the business world guarantees instant results. Marketing automation helps a lot, but it’s not unrealistically magical. You need to understand the customer’s journey first. It’s the key to creating a customized business strategy. It’s like solving a puzzle—a puzzle to collect and analyze data to uncover what makes customers tick. In essence, marketing automation streamlines operations from A to Z. Still, it only makes business dreams come true with a thoughtful and well-executed business strategy.

How to Automate Marketing Efforts?

When you plant a tree, you can imagine its roots and see its branches. When you set up an automated marketing process, you ‘draw’ its roots on screen. Sometimes, it’s a simple, linear process. At other times, it only looks super complicated but simplifies many tasks simultaneously. Now, let’s break down how marketing automation works.

Marketing automation automates repetitive, manual tasks. It typically involves setting up workflows. You start with a query, continue selecting “IF” options, and add different alternatives for every processing path. Understanding customer needs becomes clear once they interact with your automated system. Leveraging their behavior, you can offer your services as solutions to their needs. Marketing automation also helps you define the right time to approach customers. This is when a sales representative needs to pick up the phone.

An automation process can handle many tasks related to a lead or client. These processes include email marketing, social media posts, personal emails, and setting up tasks for a sales rep in the CRM. By analyzing and scoring customer interactions, you can customize the journey for every prospect. This ensures you meet leads’ interests and needs at the most relevant time for them.

Marketing automation increases efficiency and delivers relevant content to every lead at the right time. And don’t forget that getting the right leads at the right time makes a difference to a sales rep—timing is king!

Marketing Automation Benefits

We’ve already exemplified how automating processes can ease your business life. It can help you breathe, have coffee, and enjoy a successful business. Here’s a quick overview of how you can benefit from automating your marketing efforts and sales channels.

1. Automated marketing boosts your business presence online. Marketers and salespeople use marketing channels to collect customer data. This data helps everyone working behind the scenes create a 360-degree view of each customer.
   
2. Marketing automation facilitates lead scoring for customers. Is it an active prospect waiting for your sales call? Or do you want to wake up a ghost user who has never opened two newsletters in a row? Automated marketing processes allow you to score your leads based on their behavior. Here, you send relevant content by reaching customers at a specific stage of their journey. 
3. Automated marketing helps identify the most promising leads. By tracking lead behavior, marketers tailor campaigns to meet their needs. This method leads to higher conversion rates and ROI. 
4. Automating CRM processes is a must-have strategy. It monitors customer behavior and then delivers customized emails. Tailored content helps businesses maintain steady communication and forge lasting relationships. 
5. Marketers and salespeople can finally have an effective workflow. Automating marketing processes enables a transition of the workflow from marketing to sales. That’s because you can build a lead scoring system that determines when a lead is burning hot and ready for a sales rep to engage. 
6. Marketing automation allows segmentation. People buy from people who offer services and products that resonate with their search intent. Segmentation targets the users who are interested in your services and products. Whether it’s newsletters, ads, or a sales rep’s call, automated processes ensure the right approach and timing to reach out to leads.

You will get more efficient in your efforts and gain a wider reach if you get automation right. Automated processes help you to do so much more work than you could manually. You need to build a strategy and implement it step by step.

Automate Your Success

Joined an event and got a thank-you note quicker than your morning coffee?

Send those thank-you notes to your customers. That’s the power of automated marketing! It combines automated processes to perform repetitive tasks on autopilot mode. In essence, marketing automation helps business people work smarter, not harder. It also helps customers complete their searches faster, not harder.

As Bill Gates wisely noted, the effectiveness of automation depends on the efficiency of the operation to which it is applied. In other words, while automation can amplify efficiency, it can also magnify inefficiency if used incorrectly.  If you want to delve into the ins and outs of marketing automation and how you can make the best out of it, give us a call.